John Chambers and Myron Ullman, CEOs of Intel and JCPenney, raised eyebrows recently by co-writing a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece in which they called for Congress to approve legislation that would “break the business model” of “patent-assertion firms,” otherwise known as patent trolls, which collectively cost the two companies more than one-third of a billion dollars in legal expenses over the last five years.

Wal-Mart’s high-profile move to raise its minimum wage was aimed at least in part at boosting its reputation among certain constituencies. But what ever the motive, the action now looks like it may have been inevitable given other rising market forces at work. It’s also apparent that Wal-Mart's maneuver may have set in motion a trend that could affect just about any company with hourly employees.

Not many companies have had as much tumult lately as Sprint, which, in February, took a $1.9-billion quarterly write-off because of the reduced value of its trade name. The company’s stock price is down by more than 50%, from a high of $9.74 in June, 2014 to $4.28 on February 26, 2015, but the sale price has somewhat stabilized over the last 30 days.

You’ve had a great career and you have a wealth of knowledge and experience. But while you’re stepping down as CEO, you’re not ready to step down from leadership. What’s the best way for you to continue to challenge yourself while giving others the benefit of your expertise?

If you run a mid-market company, create jobs, pay taxes and ensure community stability, but you’re not feeling the love from your state government, have a little patience: A governor may come calling soon. More state chief executives are dumping politeness and protocol and making job-raiding expeditions to other states.

It would be easy to look back on this trend years from now and say it was all Walmart’s fault—that they started it when they raised pay for 500,000 hourly employees to $10. But it goes much deeper than that.

At large publicly-held companies, one CEO after another is being battered or at least threatened by private-equity groups, celebrity corporate raiders and other activist shareholders that are holding company chiefs’ feet to the fire as never before. Here are 6 ways CEOs can prepare and protect themselves and their companies when activist stockholders begin sniffing around.

Out of the mouths of babes—or at least 9-year-olds—can flow some pretty sage advice for CEOs and business chiefs. At least when it comes from Alina Morse, the founder of a startup company called Zollipops, which has received national acclaim for its innovative product—cavity-fighting lollipops. Here are 8 basic but timeless insights based on the Zollipops experience.

More CEOs and business chiefs today are exploring a wider range of opportunities for their companies than they’ve ever considered before. That’s one conclusion of the recently completed 18th Annual Global CEO Survey by PwC. More than half of CEOs surveyed (56%) believe it’s likely that their companies increasingly will compete in new industries over the next three years. Three in 10 entered a new sector or sub-sector in the past three years, and 21% have considered doing so.

President Obama and Congressional Republicans could come together around some version of the new plan in his budget bill for overhauling U.S. corporate taxes and linking it to boosting infrastructure spending. But CEOs and independent analysts see plenty of potential complications before any agreement that could significantly address both of these pressing national economic issues.